Switch from package @ CR to Swan?

[Lugan]

I have reservations for October 2020, originally for POR now at CR. While looking at the continued reduced benefits for truly staying on-property at CR (no EMH, no luggage handling for ME, no Dining Plan availability, no Monorail to Epcot), I was checking out if there were reduced rates for other options. Lo and behold, the swan comes in at under 1/2 the price for the same 8 night stay. Even factoring in buying park tickets, the total price ends up being ~ $2500 less than our package at CR.

Now, the problem is I have a 9-day ticket, with park reservations and dining reservations tied to my existing CR stay. I should be fine with dining reservations, as those aren't dependent on the hotel / ticket stay, right? But, Disney is only selling 7-day tickets currently. Anybody have experience migrating to a reservation at Swan/Dolphin from an on-property stay? Can a CM give me a hand if I call customer service at Disney, or do I need to cancel and buy new tickets and hope for the availability for park reservations?

Thanks!

 

[SteveMouse]

While it’s likely not going to cost $2500, remember that ME is not available to Swan/Dolphin guests.

 

[JayMass]

I don't have an answer for you but if you could save $2500, I'd do that in a heart beat. WIth the current lack of the DDP, parking fees at Disney Resorts, and lack of baggage handling through DME, the difference in staying on-property and the S/D is not very big. So it might cost you an extra $40 to Uber there? I'd totally do it!

 

[djmeredith]

That's a lot of money to save! The only reason to consider keeping the CR res is if you have little ones and plan to spend a lot of time at MK. The convenience of being able to come/go from CR to MK can't be beat with little ones.

 

[Dave006]

[QUO

I should be fine with dining reservations, as those aren't dependent on the hotel / ticket stay, right?

Correct ADRs are tied to you and the credit card you used to confirm each ADR.

Anybody have experience migrating to a reservation at Swan/Dolphin from an on-property stay? Can a CM give me a hand if I call customer service at Disney, or do I need to cancel and buy new tickets and hope for the availability for park reservations?

The only way a Disney CM can help you make the change is if you book the Swan as a Package and pay full price. While you did not mention it specifically it sounds like your $2500 savings is coming from booking directly at the Swan.

The Swan is an onsite resort so you will have access to the Disney Park Reservation system (bucket of tickets) and share Disney bus service to MK and AK. Right now the Swan has Mear's Buses for HS and Epcot since the Friendship boats are not currently operating for the Crescent Lake resorts.

On tickets for that $2500 savings you could spring for a set of 2-day tickets to add to your 7 day tickets or another type of ticket combination / split if you do some math.

Dave

 

[lanejudy]

You will not be able to purchase 9-day tickets. Crunch the numbers and decide if the additional 2 days is worth an extra 2-day ticket.

 

[Lugan]

Thank you for the feedback. I was aware of no ME, and figured we'd have to Lyft it over. I wasn't sure when Crescent Lake boats would be starting operations (or if they had yet), which is good information to know!

The package price, through Disney's website is ~ $450 more than the total price of four 7-day tickets (through Disney) and the 8-night stay (through Marriott), and that's for just a standard room vs. the Theme Park View + Balcony room I was pricing direct through Marriott. I also was surpried that even with a stay like this, they only offer up to 7-day tickets for the package. To add an additional 2-day ticket for my party of four, it adds over $1,000(!) to the total cost, which is certainly not worth it with the reduced hours and those 2 days being travel days.

I guess the big difference is in the cancellation policy. Since I have the CR package right now, I can cancel the whole thing, and still get my ticket price portion of the package refunded. If I buy tickets to go along with a Swan booking direct through Marriott, I don't see any way to cancel, in case somebody gets sick or can't otherwise travel in 6 weeks, and get a refund on the ticket cost, as I understand it. Is that accurate?

What about buying tickets by mail from UT? There appears to be a 5% processing fee on refunds there, in case I need to do that. But can I refund after receipt of tickets, linking them in MDE and setting up park reservations, or am I stuck once I get that far? Sorry for the extra questions, but after having to book/cancel/re-book a half of a dozen times this past year, I'm a little gunshy of getting into a completely non-refundable situation.

Thanks, again!

 

[KMarston]

We just booked the Dolphin today for June. We always stay at the Poly with DGS each year but his parents and step brother are coming along this time so we booked using Marriott points. They told us today that we could cancel up to the day of our reservation. The ticket which I haven’t purchased yet aren’t refundable but I understand that I can use the amount we paid towards tickets for another time.

 

[Marthasor]

Thank you for the feedback. I was aware of no ME, and figured we'd have to Lyft it over. I wasn't sure when Crescent Lake boats would be starting operations (or if they had yet), which is good information to know!

The package price, through Disney's website is ~ $450 more than the total price of four 7-day tickets (through Disney) and the 8-night stay (through Marriott), and that's for just a standard room vs. the Theme Park View + Balcony room I was pricing direct through Marriott. I also was surpried that even with a stay like this, they only offer up to 7-day tickets for the package. To add an additional 2-day ticket for my party of four, it adds over $1,000(!) to the total cost, which is certainly not worth it with the reduced hours and those 2 days being travel days. $2500

I guess the big difference is in the cancellation policy. Since I have the CR package right now, I can cancel the whole thing, and still get my ticket price portion of the package refunded. If I buy tickets to go along with a Swan booking direct through Marriott, I don't see any way to cancel, in case somebody gets sick or can't otherwise travel in 6 weeks, and get a refund on the ticket cost, as I understand it. Is that accurate?

What about buying tickets by mail from UT? There appears to be a 5% processing fee on refunds there, in case I need to do that. But can I refund after receipt of tickets, linking them in MDE and setting up park reservations, or am I stuck once I get that far? Sorry for the extra questions, but after having to book/cancel/re-book a half of a dozen times this past year, I'm a little gunshy of getting into a completely non-refundable situation.

Thanks, again!

You are correct about the stand-alone ticket policy. Once purchased, they are nonrefundable but will never lose value, so, if something does happen and you don't travel, you can use those tickets another time or put their value toward the purchase of new tickets should they expire. With UT, their general policy is to not give refunds once the tickets are linked in MDE. I really love the Swan and the $2500 savings is very appealing, but I understand your conundrum of putting yourself in a non-refundable ticket situation. If you think you will still go to WDW another time if this trips falls through, the only consolation, I suppose, is knowing the tickets you purchased will still hold value.

 

[JayMass]

OH, CR. I read that as Caribbean Beach and not the Contemporary--my bad. CR's location certainly holds a lot of value with the monorail and walking distance to MK. That can be huge if you have little ones. CR is also just a fabulous resort. We planned on staying at the Swan this past April and then COVID hit. We rescheduled for September at CBR but couldn't go with travel restrictions placed on us by our jobs in Mass. We rescheduled CBR for this April. We are hoping DDP returns by then, if not I might consider Swan/Dolphin.

But, but, but, but $2500 is a tremendous savings. Purchasing tix through UT is a safe thing to do as long you know you are going to use them. They have ask for a start date, they do expire, and you won't likely get a refund without a serious customer service exchange. If there is a chance you will need to cancel and won't head back to WDW in the near future then I wouldn't use UT.

 

[JayMass]

Sorry, the UT tix don't expire per se but you would be charged more if ticket prices increase after the dates on the tickets.

 

[Lugan]

Again, thank you for all of the advice.

I think I'm mostly comfortable with getting tickets, knowing that if I don't use them I can use the cost towards future disney tickets. Can they be used as part of payment for a vacation package on property later?

Of course, I went and looked at Costco's pricing, and saw that I can get the same, Resort view Balcony room at the Swan for ~ $750 less than booking direct, with tickets included. The catch is, it's 0% refundable, which I think is too much for me. But, I figured I'd share for anyone else coming across this when perusing/searching.

It is a rough decision, since CR has that close MK availability, and we have a 9 and 5 year old in tow, which is why we asked to go there when POR was announced as being closed. I think if DDP was available, we'd probably pay the extra and go with CR over the Swan.

Now the question is, if I buy and add theme park ticks to MDE before cancelling the CR res., will my park reservations stick around, since they're from the same pool. Or will I need to re-book? Right now they're showing wide open availability for that week, so it's likely to not be an issue. Just save me the hassle.

 

[lanejudy]

Can they be used as part of payment for a vacation package on property later?

No, you would need to book a room-only reservation for the next future trip. The tickets are stand-alone and cannot be rolled into a package.

And, yes, your park reservations should be fine.

 

[scjm222]

I’ve stayed at both CR and Swan. While the swalphin isn’t a Disney resort, we really love staying there because we can walk to 2 parks. We generally get an Alcove room (bigger room) at the Dolphin instead of the Swan because there are more food choices. I priced CR for our thanksgiving trip and just can’t stomach paying more than double. With that said, you can’t beat walking to MK from CR.

 

[lanejudy]

Sorry, the UT tix don't expire per se but you would be charged more if ticket prices increase after the dates on the tickets.

Just to be clear -- tickets from UT do have an expiration date unless you purchase the "flexible" option (which also has an expiration but further out). Any ticket that remains fully unused past the expiration date can be exchanged towards a new dated tickets. These are the same rules as tickets purchased direct from WDW.

 

[JayMass]

Just to be clear -- tickets from UT do have an expiration date unless you purchase the "flexible" option (which also has an expiration but further out). Any ticket that remains fully unused past the expiration date can be exchanged towards a new dated tickets. These are the same rules as tickets purchased direct from WDW.

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[Lugan]

All done! Got E-tickets from UT, linked up the hotel reservation and tickets, then cancelled CR. Park pass reservations still appear to be on my account, but I'll keep an eye on them over the next few days, just to make sure that there aren't any latent processing effects that show up once all of the computer systems update.

We generally get an Alcove room (bigger room) at the Dolphin instead of the Swan because there are more food choices.

Dolphin just wasn't available for this time period, plus with 4 of us, 2 Queen Beds outweigh 2 Double Beds for sleeping choices.

I was pretty excited about CR, when I first got the option to upgrade to it. But, now I'm excited about the cost savings, and being able to spend a bit more freely on dining reservations and the rest of the vacation! Here's to hoping it actually happens.

 

[disnie susie]

Please let us know how your stay went. Considering changing from Coronado to the swan for December.

 

[Silver saucer]

The S/D are lovely hotels in a great area. They have quite a nice pool area too! Have a wonderful time!!!